Extended body help

[williamhj 0]

I've seen some videos showing how to make extended bodies with dubbing for adams, BWOs, etc. I put a needle in the vice, wrap dubbing over micro fibbets for the tail, then coat with an adhesive, take off the needle and allow to dry before wrapping onto the hook and tying the rest of the fly. However, every time I've tried to do this, the dubbing extended body comes apart no matter how long I've given the adhesive to dry - I've used head cement.

 

What am I doing wrong? A different adhesive? Some other material? Any help / recommendations are welcome.

 

Thanks!

[whatfly 0]

Unfamiliar with that method, but what you might try is putting a needle in the vise (helps if you grease it with a bit of floatant), laying a thread base, tying in the microfibbets with another thread base, then dubbing. Method has worked fine for me. If you must use adhesive, I'd do it before you dub the extendend body. An overcoat of adhesive just doesn't sound right to me.

 

YMMV.

[utyer 0]

Are you spinniung the dubbing directly onto the needle, or onto the thread and then wrapping over the needle? I use a long fiber dubbing like Wapsi superfine, and spin just a tiny bit onto the needle, then insert the tails. Spin more dubbing over the tails, and build a profile. Make sure your tails extend out far enough to be the right length for your pattern, and that there is plenty left to attach to the hook when you attach the extended body. I use water based (Loon) head cement.

[JRG 0]

This might help...

 

[pttroe 0]

Hi,

I use textile glue(to glue fabrics, leather) wich is flexible and durable, as a base on the needle, then spin a tiny layer of dubbing on the needle( no thread involved), then the fibbets, then shape the body with more dubing and seal it of with loon waterbased flexible head cement.(like norm norlander does it)

The problem I have though, is that it's difficult to get the fibbets to sepparate(sapperate??) into a nice 3 way tail.

greetz from Norway,

PT

[flytire 0]

buy some "tube body"

 

[Fred H. 0]

After placing the needle in the vise rub a bar of soap all over the needle's surface as a lubricant. then wrap down the needle and back with two smooth layers of thread . Coat the layers of thread with flexament and allow time to dry before proceeding.Now you can use a number of different techniques to form your extended body that will stay together when pulled off the needle.

 

Fred

[williamhj 0]

Thanks for the ideas - I'll have to try some soap on the needle and the fabric glue. When you spin the dubbing on the needle, do you have one of the nor-vises or one that rotates that easily? Mine rotates, but I don't think well enough to spin dubbing like that. Are there any techniques for spinning the dubbing without thread?

 

Thanks again, it's fun to experiment with different ways to tie the bodies.

[primitivepete 0]

I use dubbing wax on the needle, but I'll have to try the soap. You sometimes have to heat the needle a bit to slide the body off.

 

I also like to cut some antron fibers the same length as the body and lay them parallel to the needle after coating the thread base with silicone sealer. Then when you dub it, the fibers reinforce the body, so it doesn't come apart as easily when sliding it off.

[Old Hat 0]

I do the same as primitivepete, I use a Shane Stalcup method. Wax the needle, tie in the micro fibbets, wrap some antron lengthwise along the needle, place a small amount of glue, then dub. After I slide the body off, I crimp it with hemostats to flatten and add a ribbing pattern.

[salmobytes 0]

I make lots of extended bodies. Always on a #10 or thinner beading needle with 14/0 thread. I spin up to a dozen or more tight loops around the needle in order to secure the thread. I do not build on top of that lump. That lump becomes a squiggly waste tag the gets snipped off as a last step--after sliding the body off the needle.

 

Then I tie on a duck flank feather just to the right of the lump. I wrap away from the lump, spreading the duck flank feathers around the needle shank as they go. At the rear end of the abdomen I snip off any remaining duck flank. Add tails (perhaps fibettes). I walk the thread forward, back over top the duck flank in visually regular spirals, as if it was ribbing. Slide the body off the needle. Soak the length of the body with thinned out water based fabric cement.

 

The fly below was mostly tied on the needle. I tie on the wings while still on the needle. Then mount a hackle on a scud hook. Then mount the body loosely. Then wind the hackle between curved hook shank and loosely mounted body. Then finish off with a tiny drop of thin CA glue. The fly below is tied on a #22 scud hook. Because this is an extended body pattern the fly itself is bigger than #22--perhaps (in this case) a #16 fly. Matching a smaller hook to any given fly size does make a lighter, higher-floating fly. This particular pattern has a Zelon wing. But I do often this same style fly with a CDC wing instead.

 

[JRG 0]

I wasn't implying you need a norvise. You can just wrap the dubbing or use any rotary to do so while you hold the dubbing. Having a nor vise just makes it that much easier/faster. I was just showing how Norm does it and you can see he uses Loon cement.